"sheep, goats, and children of god"

anna blaedel
first umc, osage
november 23, 2008

psalm 100
matthew 25:31-46
stewardship sunday


I hate asking people for money. And I am not inclined to preach about God’s judgment. But. And. It is Stewardship Sunday, and our lectionary text from Matthew is the story of God’s final judgment, and I am your pastor, your preacher. So, I am stuck. And so are you. Let us pray. O God, may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, O God our Strength and our Redeemer.

Last Thursday, I locked myself out of the parsonage. For the second time in two weeks. The first time I found an unlocked window and crawled right on in. If there are rumors of a shadowy, lurking stranger at the parsonage, fear not. It was me. Then I carefully locked all my windows, and popped the screen back . So, Thursday, there was no way in. I was cold. I was hungry. I was tired. I was mad at myself. I had a sermon to write. And you helped me. You left your own baked potato waiting, you set aside your work, you came into the cold, you gathered your crowbars and cordless electric screwdrivers. And you helped me. You got me inside, you made me smile and feel a little less alone, a little less stupid. You even made me spare keys so it might not happen again. You saw my need, and you responded.

Just as you do this to the least of these, you do it to me, says Jesus.

Giving all you have and all you are, for the good of the community, for the glory of God.

Anthony Robinson writes, “Goodness is not planned. It is not a heroic decision or clever calculation. It is an expression of who we are.” Stewardship. Faith. Doing good. Responding to human need. Expressions of who we are, and whose we are.
Many of you who have celebrated birthdays since September 1 when I arrived in Osage have heard me repeat Henri Nouwen’s call to celebrate. Nouwen writes: “Birthday’s need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: “Thank you for being you.” Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.” No, we say: “Thank you for being born and being among us.”

If you notice the strange faces here up front, you will know I am gifted by people who have traveled and gathered and slept on floors to feed me, surround me and celebrate my birthday. I am grateful. Birthdays need to be celebrated.
We all need reminded that simply being is a gift from God, that each and every one of us is created by God, blessed by God, called good by God, invited by God to do good in the world, to live out of our blessings and blessedness. Thank you, for being born and being among us. This is what stewardship is about. This is what the gospel story is about. And it is how well we participate in this practice, by which our faith will be judged.

When John Wesley was initiating the early Methodist movement in 17th century England, things did not look good. Fast and furious economic development in urban areas was draining the resources of rural people. Farming families were pushed closer to poverty, isolated socially and economically. Young people left their small communities in search of money and opportunity in the cities. The church was so concerned about its own well being and wealth that it was forgetting—about people in the community, people hungering for food, for faith, and for meaning. Things did not look good for Wesley, or his followers.

Someone asked him if he was afraid of the Methodist movement dying out. Hear Wesley’s response: “I’m not afraid of the Methodist movement dying out. I’m afraid of us becoming a dead sect, keeping the form but losing the power.” Keeping the form, but losing the power.

This is the warning Matthew sends out with this morning’s Gospel story.

In the 25th chapter of Matthew, in the story this community chose at Charge Conference to be our story, Jesus reminds us of our power, cautions us against keeping the mere form of faith. In speaking of the final judgment, the last days, Jesus did not ask, “Have you been born again? Or, how strong is your faith, really? Or, what hymns do you sing in worship? Or, what is your church’s operating budget? Or, what is your membership roll? Or, what awards have you received? What committees have you sat on? What influential people have you known? What amount did you commit on your stewardship commitment card?”

Jesus asks, “What did you do? Did you feel the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned?” Did you do everything you could? Did you give all you are and all you have? Then the good news: “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked, ignored, or forgotten, that was me—you did it to me.”

Then he separates the people, much to their own surprise. The sheep: those who hear God’s word and then DO God’s work. The goats: those who hear the word, but don’t respond. And the sheep are as surprised to learn they are sheep as the goats are to find they are goats. They have not done heroic deeds, they have not singlehandedly eradicated poverty or cured cancer. They have done what they can. Responded to need through an expression of who they are and whose they are.

You are sick? We will visit. In prison? We will come inside the walled, guarded gates. Hungry? Sit. Let’s eat. Thirsty? Here’s water to refresh you. Locked outside in the cold? We’ll come and help. Strange? Alone? Outcast? Ignored? Welcome! It’s good to have you here! Welcome!

Celebrating God and each other, simply for being, for being born and being among us. We are beautiful and blessed. And we are broken. We are God’s beloved, and we are the least and the lost. We can offer Christ’s compassion to those we meet. And we are in need of receiving Christ’s compassion from those we encounter. We are called to be sheep, hearing God’s call and responding by doing God’s work of offering hospitality and building the community of God. And, we are expected to welcome the goats among us.

We are not expected to save others. We are called to connect. God saves. And Jesus sets the example. He did not ask people to volunteer, or sign their names on the dotted line of a sign up sheet. Jesus invited people to become disciples, for the transformation of the world. To build relationships and connections. Jesus saw the deep need in beautiful, broken people, and then sat at table to eat together. Pray together. Mourn together. Grow together. And he asks all who follow him to go out and do the same. Jesus knew, sign up sheets stay filled and commitment cards are turned in, when people seek ways to serve God and serve each other. Not as a requirement, but as a response.

And in doing so, we are told, we will meet God. Here. And in prison. Where there is hunger and need and isolation and neglect. We care called to feed the hungry not because there is overwhelming poverty, but because people are hungry. People need to eat. We need to eat. Again, hear the wisdom of Henri Nouwen, a pastor and priest and sheep, in his own right. “When I went to Peru for the first time I was strongly motivated by the burning issues of Latin America. I had heard and read about illiteracy, malnutrition, poor health, infant mortality, and many other problems. I wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering of my fellow human beings. But when I arrived in to Peru and began living there, what I came to know first of all were not issues but people: Sofia, who struggled with back pain; Pablo, who lost his job over and over again; Maria, who dreamed about having her own doll; Pablito, who wanted to go to the library and read books; and Juanita, who loved playing practical jokes on me. They certainly suffered from poverty, oppression, and exploration, but what they asked of me more than anything was not to solve their many problems, but to become their friend, share my life with them, mourn with them in their sadness, and celebrate with them in their gladness.”

“When you do it with the least of these, you do it with me.” Finding the form, without losing the power.
The form: Building the church. Being the church. Building the reign of God, here, now. The power: God’s grace, filling and forming our lives; Learning from Jesus to see the broken places in and around us, the needs and pains and tender buds of possibility, and then respond. The form: An annual stewardship drive. The power: Giving all we have and all we are, as a grateful response to all that God gives us.

"When we preach a grace which saves us without changing us, we have the form without the power." (noted from a sermon written and preached by Janet Wolf at the Bishop's Preaching Academy, 2008)

When we feed the hungry but forget that we too, need fed, we have the form without the power.

When we give to the church because we fear judgment and forget we are blessed, we have the form without the power.
Stewardship Sunday. Prayerfully committing ourselves to envisioning and creating the kingdom of God, the community of Christ here, now. Responding to God’s abundance by offering back all that we have and all that we are.

We are not nor need we become a dead sect. Remember our power, and respond to the needs we see by saying “Yes!” This is Stewardship. This is practicing our salvation, a salvation Jesus shows us, starts today. This is practicing goodness by expressing who we are as beloved children of God, to a world beloved by God. You know something about being sheep. I see the signs of salvation in our midst.

Form: Writing a check, turning in your commitment card. Power: Committing what you have to create new life, invest in faith, do ministry, practice hope, and build community.

Form: Serving as a trustee. Power: Caring for where our community gathers, how and where we worship and gather at table, where we learn and teach and practice the stories of Jesus, the story of our faith.

Form: Gathering as a worship committee. Power: Envisioning experiences of worshipping an awesome God, inviting opportunities to refill spiritually and reconnect with the sacred, creating sensory encounters with the divine—taste at table, sound and sight through passion-filled music and art.

Form: Saying “yes” to a slot on SPPRC. Power: Prayerfully assessing and attempting to meet the spiritual needs of the community. Offering leadership for building relationships with God and with each other.

Form: Renovating another room for another nursery. Power: Practicing radical hospitality to the babies, children, and parents of this community. Building a welcoming space for those who might become part of this church.

You know something of the form of faith. You also practice and participate in it’s power. When you bake cookies for the Hanging of the Greens advent festival, when you peel potatoes and cook beef and do dishes for the Roast Beef Dinner, when you donate to the women’s shelter, and sing in the choir and serve coffee for fellowship and play bingo at the county home, you are practicing stewardship, practicing discipleship, building the community of God on earth. And when you look to see who is left out, who is left alone, who is pushed away, placed on the periphery, when you reach out to the least, last, and lost, someone in pain, someone struggling, someone in need, someone who doesn’t know where else to turn, you are reaching out to God, responding to God with a faith-filled, life-giving, good-news embodying, hope-producing, grateful-giving “YES!”
“When you did this for the least of these,” says Jesus, “You did it to me.”

The form of faith, with the power of being created, blessed, and beloved of God. Committing all that we are and all that we have. Celebrating God and each other for being born and being among us. Thanks be to God! Amen, and amen.